Drawing on feedback [RETEX] of the war in Ukraine, some believe that the reconnaissance and attack helicopter no longer has a future. Hence, moreover, the decision of the US Army to cancel its FARA program [Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft]this having been motivated by the omnipresence of drones and other remotely operated munitions [MTO] on the battlefield.
That being said, for the Chief of Staff of the Army [CEMAT]General Pierre Schill, we must be careful not to draw any definitive conclusions… “Many seem convinced, in light of the Russian-Ukrainian experience, that the helicopter is now in the process of being decommissioned, in defiance of certain feedback from experience which shows that it still produces the expected effects on the battlefield,” he recently estimated. And to add: “The manned helicopter has not said its last word” because the “place of man, the primary instrument of combat, remains decisive because he alone authorizes combat capability in a scrambled environment, when the communications no longer work.
For Army Light Aviation [ALAT]the helicopter and the drone can be complementary. Hence the concept of “dronization of aerocombat”, which was the subject of initial experiments carried out by the 3rd Combat Helicopter Regiment [RHC].
“Observing the latest technological leaps in current theaters of war, the 3rd RHC is currently exploring the possibilities offered by the use of an FPV drone [First Person View] », summed up the General Inspectorate of the Army last December. “This experiment has a broader ambition: to accelerate cooperation between nanodrones and ALAT aircraft to strengthen the effectiveness of the intelligence loop” and, ultimately, “to increase high-intensity tactical effects”.
One of these experiments consisted of operating an FPV drone by a remote pilot aboard a Gazelle attack helicopter.
During an interview broadcast by Future Combat Command [CCF] last November, General David Cruzille, the commander of the Army’s Light Aviation [COMALAT]recalled that the principle of cooperation between helicopters and drones “appeared in the doctrine documents developed already 15 years ago”. The “drone, today, is a great opportunity. There is such a technological leap that we can go from doctrine to implementation,” he added.
If, for the moment, it intends to use drones or MTOs already available on the market, ALAT is currently working on the concept of Aircraft Launched Vehicles. [ELA]. “These are devices producing kinetic or non-kinetic effects of short or medium range,” explains Lieutenant-Colonel Bertrand de Kerangat, in the latest issue of “Combats futures”, the magazine published by the CCF. The idea is to be able to “have available air vectors in numbers and at a controlled cost and to integrate them into the maneuver from now on”, he continues.
The experiments carried out by the 3rd RHC serve to develop the employment doctrine for these future ELA which, once launched, will be able to destroy a target 20 km away or carry out a reconnaissance flight 50 km in front of their “carrying” helicopter, which should be , a priori, the future Cheetah, with its kit for commanding and conducting air combat operations. In addition, in order to protect them from electronic jamming and not increase the cognitive load of the crews, they will be equipped with artificial intelligence algorithms.
But we need to go further, with the development of a tactical aerocombat drone [DTA]which was briefly mentioned by COMALAT during the interview given to the CCF.
“The next phase of the droneization of aerocombat could rely on a Tactical Aerocombat Drone which, in its optimized version, would be capable of acting as a wingman for a manned helicopter,” says Lieutenant-Colonel de Kerangat .
Having to have performances “defined as needed” so that it is not too costly, this DTA “could make it possible to preserve the mass effect and increase the freedom of action of the leader depending on the level of risk or complexity of the operational challenge”, such as, for example, by carrying out reconnaissance missions, explains the officer.
Furthermore, this DTA would be “capable of fighting under the command of the tactical chief who, after a planning phase, will retain the authority necessary to deliver fire and will lead the mission [analyse, ordre en cours d’action, etc.] », he adds. Thus, such devices would make it possible to extend the aerocombat maneuver “in time and space”.
In any case, for the ALAT, there is no doubt that air combat will be “dronized” by 2040. According to the lieutenant-colonel of Kerangat, “the concept of employment will be significantly modified, with helicopters equipped with ELA and accompanied by DTAs which will be used in all types of operations and in all terrains”.
Photo: Army / CCF
